Kenan Thompson Remembers His Saturday Night Live Audition

More by Erin

Saturday Night Live funnyman Kenan Thompson, 35, is bringing the laughs as host of the star-studded Hub Network’s First Annual Halloween Bash, which will celebrate the best of Halloween with a nationwide costume competition (open until Sept. 29).

Thompson, who is entering his 11th season on Saturday Night Live, talked to Parade.com about hosting the special (set to air Oct. 26 at 8 p.m. ET), his favorite Halloween memoires, his original audition for SNL, and more.

On what viewers can expect from the Hub’s Halloween Bash.“I’m going to start with awesomeness and then radicalbility! It’s a fun job. It’s the Hub’s first time doing this and there’s a nationwide costume contest where anybody can enter and anybody can win and the grand prize is $25,000. It’s an awesome idea.”

“I’m supposed to be a rock singer, like a 'Rock of Ages' thing!” Thompson says of his Halloween Bash costume.

On his love of Halloween.“I used to go trick-or-treating all the time. When I was young, we had the plastic mask with the rubber band that would cut your face and you couldn’t breath and it was really sweaty! I had the Incredible Hulk and Spider-Man. I used to love the Incredible Hulk and then one year, I had the great idea to be Mr. T, and that was an awesome costume, too.”

On starting his 11th season on Saturday Night Live.“I think we can expect more of the same. There are going to be new people coming in and they’re going to be fitting into the mold of what Saturday Night Live represents, which is awesome comedy and awesome sketches. We’re going to sprinkle in the new people where and when it fits. We don’t want to overexpose anyone or underexpose anyone. They’re all really talented. We had a table read yesterday and everybody was super funny, so I’m excited.”

On his original SNL audition.“I had to do stand-up, and I had never done stand-up before. I had to do five minutes of the ‘I just flew into town and my arms are tired’ type stuff! I was more of a sketch performer, so I didn’t do any of that traditional stand-up stuff. I started with a phone call between Al Sharpton and Arnold Schwarzenegger talking about budgets in Harlem. And then I did some other characters, but I never got around to the telling jokes part.”

On his decade-long experience on the show.“It’s been awesome. I can’t think of a better place to have spent the last 10 years of my life. It’s the best job and it keeps you working for the rest of your life. Even if you’re not a super-duper star, at least you’ll be so connected to the business that you can do something as long as you’re motivated. When I was off of Nickelodeon and I was looking for the next thing to do I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”